With the advent of the Internet, millions of publications and documents (typically web pages) are available for perusal. However, most users do not need, nor desire, to read every publication that is available on the Internet. Several different services have been created which allow users to search, organize, store, display, or print requested documents. One such service is Hewlett-Packard's (HP) Instant Delivery Utility. Instant Delivery includes software running on a user's computer or other electrical device that provides a novel method of retrieving information from content providers on the Internet. Instant Delivery fetches publications from the content providers at predetermined scheduled times and sends them directly to a printer or other recording device, without requiring the user to be present. The user can manage the deliveries by manipulating a “delivery list” in the utility.
Instant Delivery provides a “publication catalog” that contains magazines, newspapers, and special websites specially designed by content providers for exclusive use with Instant Delivery. The utility and publication catalog work together to allow the user to subscribe for, and receive, publications that are delivered directly to the user's printer at predetermined times. The utility keeps track of when deliveries are due, then logs onto the Internet, fetches the publication, and sends it to the printer even when the user is not present.
While services such as Instant Delivery can deliver some web pages from the Internet, not all web pages on the Internet can be printed. Those web pages that require user interaction such as login or passwords cannot be delivered by HP's Instant Delivery. Further, web documents added to Instant Delivery must have a universal resource locator ((URL), its Internet address) that remains the same for every issue.
For publishing purposes, however, the ability to print daily material is invaluable. Currently, Instant Delivery requires content providers within the publication catalog to continually update or refresh their web pages stored at fixed URL addresses. Currently, there is no way to automatically retrieve URLs that contain a temporal field, such as datestrings and timestrings. If content providers could include temporal fields in the URLs, they can simplify their archival process for past issues. Further, by having temporal fields incorporated within the URLs, many other web documents that are periodically updated on the Internet can be requested by Instant Delivery without their inclusion into the publication catalog. Thus, web sites that are periodically changing and of interest to the user, can be retrieved and printed similarly as documents supplied by content providers. Further, content providers can change the organization of their web sites to allow for more efficient archiving and to provide access to “back issues.”
Indeed, many web publications now on the Internet do incorporate a temporal field such as a datestring in their URLs. However, there is no standard practice for doing so and multiple methods of incorporating the temporal field exist. The temporal field inclusion in URLs is done broadly in one of two ways. If the URL is “static”, that is it points to a fixed web page, the temporal field is incorporated into the path of the web page within the URL. If the URL is “dynamic”, this is it incorporates parameters to be passed to an interactive program, the temporal field is usually included within or is one of the parameters. The following exemplary URLs illustrate static and dynamic methods for incorporating a datestring.                STATIC: http://www2.uclick.com/ucrossword/daily/99/12/30/puzpic.gif        DYNAMIC: http://www2.uclick.com/ucrossword/daily/puzpic.gif?day=991230.The next day (Dec. 31, 1999) would accordingly be:        STATIC: http://www2.uclick.com/ucrossword/daily/99/12/31/puzpic.gif        DYNAMIC: http://www2.uclick.com/ucrossword/daily/puzpic.gif?day=991231.        
One problem with temporal fields such as the datestring field is that it can be incorporated into the URL in an almost unlimited combination of possibilities.